The testimony of a cracked door
There is a crack in my parents' front door. The door is not in disrepair, and to most observers, there is no visible sign that the door's integrity is compromised. At night the severity and even the presence of the crack are impossible to determine. But when the sun shines, the light that presses through the crack bears an undeniable testimony.
I recently spent a few days at my parents' home. It was not a visit of pleasure but one of heartache. Close family friends had lost a son and a grandson, and I returned home to be with this family. My heart was broken. The heaviness of grief was felt with every breath. The fatigue of sadness rested on my shoulders like cumbersome over-stuffed luggage. Everything within me wanted to do something to make it better, assuage my friends' pain, and heal the brokenness. But there was nothing that could be done. All I could do was remember the wisdom of Solomon that there is an appointed time for everything, and this was a time to weep and mourn. And so, we did.
I noticed it as I came and went from my parents' home. I would pass by it, and it would catch my eye. There was light pushing through the crack in the front door. It seemed strange to see a line of light emanating from the door. It was almost like an angel had scratched the door with a line running down the wooden panels. Each time I saw it, I would think to myself that I needed to inform my dad so he could make repairs, but there never seemed to be a good time to broach the subject. Yet as I experienced the brokenness of these days, the more I reflected on the crack in the door that light pushed through.
The Bible often uses the image of darkness to illustrate sin, the brokenness that sin brings, and the consequences of being separated from God. When we experience the grief and brokenness of living in a fallen world, we often use darkness to describe how we experience these things. In contrast, the Bible uses light to demonstrate the presence of God and the hope that Jesus brings through the forgiveness of sin and our restoration to a right relationship with God. In the gospel of John, when Judas leaves the upper room to betray Jesus, he writes these four words: "And it was night." This was indeed a dark moment. A few hours later, Judas, with a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, groped through that same darkness, with lanterns and torches, to arrest Jesus while He prayed in the garden. Later that same night, Peter, who was trying to stay warm in the cool of the night by a charcoal fire, would deny that he was a follower of Jesus. In Mark's gospel, he tells us that while Jesus hung on the cross at around noon, "there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour." All of these events are moments of darkness, both physically and spiritually.
Three days later, the imagery is very different. On Sunday morning, the resurrection day, Matthew and Luke tell us in their gospels that the two Marys made their way to the tomb at early dawn, just as the day was breaking. In other words, the darkness of the night gave way to the light of day not only with the rotation of the earth around the sun but also with the resurrection of the bright Morning Star. First John chapter 1 puts it rather plainly with these words "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."
There are moments when the oppressive brokenness of this world demands our attention. We can neither escape nor avoid these moments. They often arrive unexpectantly. They often shake our confidence and steal our strength. These are the moments I think David had in mind when he spoke of walking through the valley of the shadow of death. But it is in these moments that we most clearly see the cracks where the light is pushing through. In the darkest moments, we see most clearly the light pushing through.
Psalm 139:11–12 (ESV) —11If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,”12even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
The Bible speaks frankly about the sufferings and difficulties we will know in this world. Beginning in Genesis 3 and stretching to Revelation 21, is a testimony to the consequence of sin and that all who walk on this earth will know the sufferings, griefs, heartaches, and pains of living in mortal bodies in a fallen world. But do not grow weary. There is a light that shines in the darkness. Jesus confronted the darkness and overcame it. The heartbreak of this week has been tremendous, but the hope of salvation in Jesus is greater still. The darkness of grief has been great, but the light of the gospel is greater still. My father will someday repair the front door, but I am thankful for its witness to me this week that the light of the gospel is pressing through the darkness.
